North Fulton home sales: Breaking down price points

Bob StraderBob Strader is a local realtor with the NORTH Group of Keller Williams Realty. Visit his blogs liveincumming.com or liveinalpharetta.com or email him: info@thenorthgroup.com.

Anyone who has been following the real estate market in our area knows that inventories have tightened.

There are fewer homes available, in general, which is why prices have been rising.

For most sellers, it is a seller’s market.

Six months of inventory denotes a healthy market, not a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. But we know that inventory levels will vary by location and by price point. As you would expect, there are different inventory levels and activity levels at various price points. I have broken that down here for North Fulton County.

It’s not a big surprise to see that lower-priced homes tend to move faster and therefore have fewer inventory.

With less than two months of inventory — if you are looking for a home in North Fulton and you need to be under $200,000, then you’ll have to choose wisely, but also quickly.

In fact, anything under $500,000, there’s less than six months of inventory.

By all measures, this is a seller’s market. From $500K-$700K, the market is more balanced.

Buyers have homes to choose from and time to find what they like, but homes tend to sell at a reasonable pace.

It’s a bit slower in the $700K - $900K range, but for homes over $900K, things are still slow.

Sellers need their homes to be marketed well and those homes need to be very attractive to the limited buyer pool.

Another point a buyer should consider; these numbers are for all homes in that price range.

Most buyers have additional qualifiers such as a home being located in a swim/tennis community, a specific school district or having a finished basement.

That further minimizes choices.

While the higher price points still have a ways to go with respect to inventory and competition, the good news is that overall, the inventory supply is decreasing.

Two years ago, the overall months of inventory was 6.2 versus the current 4.2 months. And homes between $1 million and $1.5 million were looking at 28.3 months versus 18.9 months of inventory.